Granada tumbles £59m into red
GRANADA chief executive Charles Allen declared that the ITV broadcaster is well positioned to rush out of the downturn in advertising but admitted he could not yet see light at the end of the tunnel.
Unveiling a full-year pre-tax loss of £59m against a pro-forma profit of £85m, Allen said: 'ITV's revenue is leading the cycle and the changes we have made will ensure Granada is well placed to benefit from being the lowest-cost and most efficient producer-broadcaster in Europe.'
Granada said it will cut another 430 jobs on top of the 650 which have already gone this year.
But Granada also forecast that advertising revenues in the key Christmas quarter will be down 12% year-on-year at £234m - the same percentage decline they showed for the whole of the year to the end of September.
Allen also failed to come up with concrete news on the future of ITV Digital, the former ONdigital, which has cost Granada and co-owner Carlton a small fortune. Digital losses for the year were higher than expected at £234m but Granada said they should come down by £104m in the current year.
'ITV Digital and ITV Sport are the key priority. ITV Digital have implemented a plan that will reduce costs and improve performance by £145m in 2002 and in ITV Sport we are focused on extending carriage,' Allen said.
'We are exploring a range of opti
The alternatives being explored, he said, should reduce the likely funding requirements for the existing shareholders, who have each invested £394m in ITV Digital and would currently each have to put in another £179m, taking the total investment to £1.15bn.
The 12% fall in advertising revenues last year was partially offset by a 5% rise in revenues from programme production to £537m, leading to a 6.6% fall in turnover at £1.49bn. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were slashed from £323m to £236m.
The figures are based on pro-forma numbers for 2000 to reflect the demerger of catering group Compass and acquisition of the United Business Media ITV stations Meridian and Anglia. A full-scale merger of Carlton and Granada remains some time away but Allen welcomed this week's move by the Government to unblock such a deal, which he said 'would bring a lot of benefits'.
Announcing that it would pay only a 1p final dividend, which matches the interim payout, Granada said that reflected the 'current level of profitability'.
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